Galactic War need explanation on matchmaking?

So.. I'm not usually one for posting on forums but I feel I (we) need an explanation on how galactic war matchmaking works.

You have a info section on most things i.e raids that explain in great detail and yet i'm struggling to find anything official on Galactic war.

The reason I'm asking is because I'm currently lvl 79 and until im lvl 80-82 I have no access to leader or unique omega's and yet I'm being put against power 17k plus fully Zeta'd teams.

Today.......
My current team is phoenix 62k total G8 no access to upgrade unique/leader - The opposing team is 71,679 - Darth Maul Maxed out at 17k + Zeta on leader ability which is OP regardless of what the power level states!

I literally have no chance of completing this even If I had several teams the same power as my phoenix.
I cant even take out 1 of the opposing team using my 65k phoenix, 50k bounty hunters and 55k Jedi

I've tried everything to give me a fighting chance of finishing with phoenix. I sent weaker teams to force them to use there special abilities. I sent my bounty hunters in just to take out 1 member and couldn't even take the protection off one of them. It is literally impossible to finish! And I had this problem since turning Level 75.

Please Devs! Can you explain why I'm being pitted against impossible odds and why you have no official explanation to how matchmaking works?

We all enjoy a challenge and I have had to overcome the odds several times by using strategy and Its a good feeling scraping that win against all odds but being put in an no win fight is infuriating and just plain wrong. whats the point of galactic war if strategy, balance means nothing? surely the matchmaking should be based on lvl? where your actually able to compete because to have access to same(LVL) upgrades they do (if you have them or not)

Thoughts Appreciated?

Post edited by Kyno on November 2018

1

Replies

It's not about a zeta on Maul. GW was intended to reward diversity in teams. Now, if u faced that team in the 1st 6 nodes, I would agree w/ u. Having 3 teams does not entitle you to finish. And regardless of what u run, certain comps just cannot beat certain others.

Wait until u face an EP lead or Nightsisters. Certain teams u will need dispels, or aoe's, or non-jedi/rebels, or...or...or...

As your teams grow and diversify, it becomes easier.

Wasn't long ago they nerfed what teams you faced in GW. It used to be worse...much worse.

I get what your saying and I've already come across night sisters, empire etc many times and have lost! sometimes barley scraping a win (with diversity) but the point was that they were similar strength and with a bit strategy and sacrifice you had the opportunity to win! (no always) But at least had a chance.

I would like the Devs to explain more how galactic war works because all I see are theories and hear say! no official explanation. One guy claimed its calculated at 125% of you highest team, another said its based on your galactic power and another claimed they can be a max of 5 levels higher??

No one seems to really understand the mechanics. Officially I would like the Devs to answer if this is in fact intended to be a WIN/NO WIN scenario based on a roll of the dice?!

or is it intended to give you a fighting chance?(Based on diversity NOT power) I'm happy to lose to the fact that I simply didn't have the right team to defeat them even if they are slightly stronger.

Zeta's on any team makes a huge difference! especially against players that have no access to those abilities themselves.

All Sith allies gain 20% Evasion and gain 20% Turn Meter whenever they Evade or are Critically Hit.” Big difference. Stealth when they evade or are critically hit. Critical hit immunity while stealthed. Advantage when they come out of stealth. And, most importantly, Sith allies start each battle stealthed, immune to crits, with 20% extra.

I may be person that said node 12 was a random team thats roughly 125% of the power of your highest 5 characters. Thats from observation.

Official word from the developers is that difficulty is based on your 5 strongest characters.

One of the few times i ever lost gw was against a zeta maul team. That said there is always an answer.

Zeta maul would be one the best leaders in the game except for one thing. R2d2 hard counters him. If you have either a rebel or resistance team with r2d2 you would probably be able to perform reasonably well.

He was insane. First time I've gone up against a zeta, maul. his ability to stealth his team was amazing. made it impossible to focus dmg on a single player lol

But Its been happening allot since I turned 73 + so for a few months now really struggling to beat the mid to final teams.

At the end of day this isn't complaint. More a question for the Devs if this unbalance is intentional or not or Is it just a rough transition between 73-82 until your able to omega and zeta as I'm guessing that's a turning point to be able to take on higher level teams? (hopefully)

It will be hard till you hit lvl85. 1 month. Bootcamp training, or valley of tears ;-)
Think about your best (highest) 5 toons (not the toons you use in gw) then
Add 15% to this number
thats your max Opponent in 12.
Everyone has to go thru this phase, high arena ranking guys have it easier than others.
ne queri pugna! ;-)

@Cull Take heart, it will get much easier. The team matching algorithm is based on an older power metric called 'stat power', which you can see in the upper right hand corner of a character's profile page on swgoh.gg.
Not the Galactic Power we're used to seeing in today's arena. Stat power doesn't take the GP increase from zetas into consideration when performing matchmaking, which can lead to a woeful imbalance in matchups on nodes 11 and 12.

It was never officially confirmed, but starting GW with lower power teams was *thought* to impact the challenge level of the lesser tiers and higher powered teams would increase the challenge. Some people thought it was based on your arena team, and others thought it was based on the team used to finish the prior node. Who knows, we all played around with it.

There was even an old 'feature' of the system that 'broke node 12', in which the system couldn't find a team with a high enough stat power to match you against, so it pit you against a a low starred, low geared squad. I went three solid months without completing GW until I was finally able to 'break' node 12.

Fortunately, once enough content came about and CG realized players had far too much to do to spend 30 minutes trying to get the optimal RNG to beat the (meta of the time) GK/zBarriss squad on nodes 11 and 12, difficulty was reduced at level 85 and then we were ultimately able to sim it (think of the celebration scenes at the end of ROTJ).

Phoenix is a good starting point for GW. They have great survivability and regenerate health and protection. R2 killed the zMaul meta and still remains the best counter (burn lowers evasion). Some GWs you just have to accept aren't going to go your way.

My current team is phoenix 62k total G8 no access to upgrade unique/leader - The opposing team is 71,679 - Darth Maul Maxed out at 17k + Zeta on leader ability which is OP regardless of what the power level states!

[...]

And I had this problem since turning Level 75.

Please Devs! Can you explain why I'm being pitted against impossible odds and why you have no official explanation to how matchmaking works?

Matchmaking doesn't depend on your team's GP. It relates to the total GP of your five highest GP toons. On each of the 12 nodes you will.encounter random other players' arena teams, who's GP is a certain percantage (depending on the node number) above or below your top—5's total GP. F.ex. node 12 is at 25% above, I believe. At some point you will reach the hard cap where the teams you encounter stop getting stronger no matter how strong your own top—5 becomes. From then on it only becomes easier and easier to complete. Until then, prepare for a challenge, where some days you won't be able to complete all 12 nodes. It's all designed to be a challenge for several weeks for you now.

It scales to the Stat Power of the 5 most powerful characters used in any mode I.e. Arena/GW/Cantina.

Stat Power is heavily weighted towards stats like Protection. So if you load up say 5 tanks, you’re going to face much higher difficulty, but at max level, they can’t find a “higher” opponent so the final few nodes break instead and you get green geared opponents.

Zetas do not add a lot if any towards Stat Power and thus you may or may not face Zeta opponents whether or not you have Zetas yourself. But you’ll see a major GP disadvantage since Zetas add like 2k GP or so.

Yeah, I think that's where the huge imbalance has come from the omega/Zeta for players below 80-85. From 0-70 It felt balanced. challenging. couldn't always finish but at least had the possibility of wining with a bit tweaking. Now im at the stage where im facing Omegas and Zeta's which ill be honest don't always represent the 2k power jump. Maul perfect example. Even omega's Hera ability to double turn meter is a game changer.

Its now become a roll of the dice!

And due to a lvl handicap when we don't have the option of getting those upgrades it (most of time) leads to impossible odds. they are end game upgrades which make a huge difference. Would be nice if the Devs looked at this as I honestly don't think this was intentional by the Devs. I see so many complaints about GW from players my level having to go through this rough transition.

We work hard at building up specific teams. we research, spend money. and all to maintain growth to continue taking on high rank teams as we increase in level. but all of a sudden that means nothing. your no longer able to compete and have to spend months losing GW because of matchmaking over sight on ability upgrades.

But again not a complaint. as you've all said. Ill just have to stick with it until I'm 85. And from what I've read the veteran players have had it allot worse than us newbies haha

saying that........ I'm almost 80 which means I can upgrade all of my phoenix unique and leader (finally)
Which may give a few wins on the way (fingers crossed) and I've just got 7* EP and just a few shard away from 7* vadar to improve my odds.

It will be hard till you hit lvl85. 1 month. Bootcamp training, or valley of tears ;-)
Think about your best (highest) 5 toons (not the toons you use in gw) then
Add 15% to this number
thats your max Opponent in 12.
Everyone has to go thru this phase, high arena ranking guys have it easier than others.
ne queri pugna! ;-)

Sorry, but not true. My top 5 have a power of 66K. I just faced a 92K G12 Zeta Jedi team led by Bastila Shan. That's a 40% difference, which is just stupid! I'm here on the forums looking for some kind of explanation as to why GW is so broken. Haven't been able to complete GW 6 out of 7 days this week. Don't see much actual reasoning, just level 85s that don't have to deal with it saying "too bad for you". If something is broken, doesn't it make sense to acknowledge it is broken and try to fix it?

That's the answer I was looking for.(unofficially) but at least it confirms I'm not the only one feeling this imbalance

Well ill def be building up R2 after that fight.

Thanks for the Info

You're definitely not the only one. Whatever is used for the matchmaking algorithm has some definite blind spots that is likely producing matches that were not intended by the developers. Like you said earlier, I don't mind a good challenge. I've had battle 12 matches that required me to go through 5 teams in order to finally win. I've spent well over 2 hours trying to get the RNG and strategy and order to battles right (it's like a crazy game of Simon Says for those that remember that old game). I don't mind the challenge. What I find ridiculous and completely broken is match-ups that are literally impossible regardless of what team you use. When your best team is a 66K team and you face a 92K power G12 zeta team, it doesn't matter who you're using... the poor matchmaking just decided for you that you're going to lose.

It will be hard till you hit lvl85. 1 month. Bootcamp training, or valley of tears ;-)
Think about your best (highest) 5 toons (not the toons you use in gw) then
Add 15% to this number
thats your max Opponent in 12.
Everyone has to go thru this phase, high arena ranking guys have it easier than others.
ne queri pugna! ;-)

Sorry, but not true. My top 5 have a power of 66K. I just faced a 92K G12 Zeta Jedi team led by Bastila Shan. That's a 40% difference, which is just stupid! I'm here on the forums looking for some kind of explanation as to why GW is so broken. Haven't been able to complete GW 6 out of 7 days this week. Don't see much actual reasoning, just level 85s that don't have to deal with it saying "too bad for you". If something is broken, doesn't it make sense to acknowledge it is broken and try to fix it?

It was true prior to whatever broke the GW algorithm in late september or early October. It still is true some of the time(when you get a normal battle 12).

Matchmaking doesn't depend on your team's GP. It relates to the total GP of your five highest GP toons. On each of the 12 nodes you will.encounter random other players' arena teams, who's GP is a certain percantage (depending on the node number) above or below your top—5's total GP. F.ex. node 12 is at 25% above, I believe. At some point you will reach the hard cap where the teams you encounter stop getting stronger no matter how strong your own top—5 becomes. From then on it only becomes easier and easier to complete. Until then, prepare for a challenge, where some days you won't be able to complete all 12 nodes. It's all designed to be a challenge for several weeks for you now.

Sorry, but this isn't true. My top 5 guys are essentially my top team, which is at 66K. I just got matched up against a 92K team which is a 40% difference. Broken.